Twas the night before Christmas

Ohhhh its only 4 more sleeps untill Christmas!!! And only 3 more sleeps untill Christmas eve bags!!!! 

Corey is 8 so he is used to this tradition. 

Corey's Christmas eve bag contains his christmas jammies, a Pokemon Annual, a minecraft velvet picture, a chocolate stir stick (mammy and daddy have one too so we can all have yummy hot chocolate christmas eve), smarties chocolate and a lego mug toy. His is in the sack I got a couple of years ago in Dealz.

Coreys bag cost €20.

Fingers crossed he likes it!!

Merry Christmas! 

Holidays are comming, hoildays are comming

Just 5 more sleeps untill Christmas!!! I am so excited as its babys first Christmas. 

Every year I make up a Christmas eve present for Corey and I thought I would share whats going into Corey and Logan's Christmas eve bags this year! 

Logan's is 8 months old at Christmas so his bag has his Christmas jammies, Christmas socks, a finger puppet book, a small toy that is also a teething toy and some milkybar christmas chocolate (which I will eat most of lol). The christmas sack that it will all be in is from Dealz. All together Logan's christmas eve bag cost €12.50.

Stay tuned for Corey's 8 year old Christmas eve bag!!!! 

Mammies Favorites

I have been using the Cocoa Brown Kind Shampoo and Conditioner for about a month now so I have decided its time I did a review on it.

I suffer from random bouts of seborrheic dermatitis on my scalp and face. I have no idea what causes it, it can appear randomly and last for months at a time before disappearing again for months. 
So I have tried all types of medicated shampoos that have usually been quite expensive to keep it under control.
When I found out Marissa Carter was bringing out a kind and gentle shampoo for those of us with extremely sensitive scalps that was the price of your normal off the shelf shampoo I was so excited. 

I have never used her tan products on because I love the pale look and never use any tan. But my sister and anyone I talk to about tan swear by it as well as celebrities such as the Kardashians. So I was delighted to finally be able to try some of her products.

When I got the shampoo the shop was all out of the conditioner but I didn't mind as I never usually use conditioner as I have very greasy hair. I decided to try the shampoo by itself. 
BIG mistake. 
The shampoo was very drying and made my hair frizzy and unmanageable. On a positive note my scalp didn't itch or flake.
So I continued to use the shampoo with a conditioner I already had and it was grand, nothing to write home about but it did the job.
About 2 weeks ago I finally got my hands on the conditioner and OMG ..........What the shampoo does to your hair, drying and frizzing it up is totally restored by the beautiful luxurious conditioner!!

Do not use one with out the other!!

The two together left my hair soft glossy and shiny without being greasy and heavy.
The shampoo gives a real intense clean and gets all the dirt out of your hair and the conditioner is so nourishing and adds in any moisture that might have been lost with the shampoo.

The packaging is lovely bright and colorful and I love that the product has a seal that you must open before using.

I smell is mild so don't expect anything over perfumed like herbal essences.

The price is amazing and if I keeps my scalp flake free for just €3 then I am happy out.

I give this a 9/10 only losing a point because the shampoo cant be used alone.

Werk it mama!!!

I am going back to work! And just like every mammy going back to work after having a baby I am excited, apprehensive, terrified, happy, nervous.... all the adjectives! 

Logan will be 5 months old when I start so of course I am sad and worried that I will miss his most important milestones. I was around for all of Coreys and it breaks my heart to think I may miss his first word or first steps...... His first anything really! And I hate the idea that someone will be raising my baby for me. But dont have a choice really.

I have to think positively about it. It is only 3 days a week and will be great for me to be around adults a few days out of the week as baby talk is slowly becoming my first language and I'm worried I may forgot how to have an grown up conversation with out bursting into row row row the boat.

We got the kids into a near by creche and after school group. Its a lovely creche and Logan has a dedicated minder so he has the full attention of his minder which is a great comfort to me. Corey will be in the same center for afterschool care where he will get his homework done and get to play and do planned activities every day. They had a setting in period last week which went really well and they are ready to start this week.

I am very lucky that I didnt have to work through my pregnancy I would not have been able for it the exhaustion and sickness was hard enough to bare when I was baking. So it has been a while since I had a proper job so I'm very excited to go back to work. I have never done full on office work so its something new for me, a total learning process. I'm of course nervous but once I get into the swing of things I know ill be fine.

Iv been shopping for a few new outfits that suit the office work I will be doing as all I own are my jeans and sweats. And also my beautiful wardrobe of clothes that dont fit me....Yet!!! So I needed somthing more suitable for an administrative assistant. 

So we are all set for me to start work this week and fingers crossed I love it and the boys love creche! 
Hopefully it wont take long to get used to juggling work, being a mammy, cooking, baking, my diet, cleaning and everything else I have got going on at the moment!

I can do this!! Im gona werk it!! 

Maternity fashion: winter is coming.

The nerd in me had to make the Game of Thrones reference in the title for this blog post. 

The autumn winter clothes are arriving in shops now and i must say I nearly wish I were pregnant again the selection is amazing! So here are a few of my favorite online winter  buys! 

Jumper dresses are great for autumn-winter months. As the weather gets colder add 300 denier tights from asos for €10.37 (above) to keep cosey. This gorgeous jumper dress from asos is €46.67 (left) and is also great paired with boots. 

Pair a jumper and skinny jeans for a comfortable casual outfit. I love these jeans (above) and jumper (left)  both €37.33 each from asos.

This large coat is great for those colder winter days, with plenty of room for your growing bump. Just €53.32 from New Look is a steal for a great coat. My Maternity coat was New Look they are a great fit and very comfortable.

These bombers are definitely on trend and I love the floral print on this one. Just €37.33 from Bluebell Maternity.

So wrap up this winter and keep your bump cosey with these fab finds! xxxx 



Lidl baby box

Maternity and Infant have teamed together with Lidl to offer a free baby box this week to mammies and mammies to be!!

 Just register on https://maternityandinfant.ie/lidlbabybox/
to receive yours.

Loosing the baby weight

When getting pregnant I promised myself I wouldn't get as big as I had in my first pregnancy. But little did I know my hormones would have other plans for my waist line. 

I suffered terrible sickness (I refuse to call it morning sickness as it was all day and all night through the entirety of my pregnancy) especially in the first 20 weeks of my pregnancy, but the nausea didn't fully stop until I popped! The only time I didn't feel completely, disgustingly sick was when I was eating so of course my weight climbed up and up. 

And the last 2 weeks of my pregnancy waiting on my lazy baby who was getting more and more overdue was quite hard on me and I think I ate a lot to make myself feel better.
By the time I had Logan I had gained 60 pounds, which shocked me when I finally gave in and weighed myself. But of course I was going to loose it all through breastfeeding so it was fine! Ha ha ha ha yea sure thing Kerrie!

I lost 25 pounds instantly in giving birth and water weight alone and then a couple more over the following week. But then it stopped and no matter what I did I didn't loose any more weight. I even tried to diet while breastfeeding and it affected my milk supply and I gained 3 pounds in a week!! So I gave up trying and decided I would give Logan 3 months of breastfeeding then stop and start my wedding diet to get my body back before wedding dress shopping begins. I ended up very easily putting on half a stone in the time before starting my diet.
My target weight loss is 50-60 pounds for my wedding. And today I reach my first stone weight loss target.

It took a few weeks for my hormones to balance out and for my milk to dry up so the first month I didn't loose a whole lot of weight, but i stuck with it and through healthy eating, calorie counting and my fitness pal app I am doing really well! One stone in the first 2 months is pretty good I think!

Of course it's hard! Having a new baby is tough there are days I'd love to stuff my face. But the one day I decided to grab a bag of chipper chipper as we were super busy getting ready for the christening and didn't have time to cook I ended up in gastric agony and puked the whole lost back up. That just proved to me the affect good and bad food have on my body. 

If your finding loosing weight hard try out My Fitness App! I think it is brilliant and I will be doing a blog post about it soon.
I feel having something important to aim for is great motivation! I just think to myself do I want that chocolate or do I want to look amazing on my wedding day? Wedding day always wins! Also my fiancé is on the diet too as he wants to look his best on our wedding day too! we keep each other on track and at least it means i don't have to makes him one dinner and myself another! 
I am hoping to be down another stone or a dress size by mid October for my close friends wedding! 
I will keep you all updated! Xxx